Chapter 27
Dash
I know something is wrong the second I see Dani’s name flash up on the screen. The burner phone we initially used to message Sadie has received exactly one message from Dani:
Give her space, assholes.
That was five days ago, the day after Sadie moved out of the clubhouse.
Five days shouldn’t feel this long. Normally, I barely notice anyone’s absence.
But the clubhouse feels quieter without Sadie and Owen’s laughter drifting through the common room.
Even Owen’s toys, which used to appear in impossible places and nearly kill unsuspecting bikers on a daily basis, have become something I miss.
The worst part is that I understand why she left.
Understanding it doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Sadie won’t talk to any of us except me, and even then, her messages are sparse and distant.
She refuses to let any of us see her. She needs space, I understand that, but I wish she’d let us continue to tail her from afar, to keep her safe.
She made it clear that if she saw any of us following her, she’d never talk to us again.
The threat sounded serious enough that we’ve stayed away.
Doesn’t mean we’ve stopped trying to protect her.
She’d be mad if she knew we’ve been following Ethan instead.
But if we’re right and Ethan is behind this, we can get the evidence we need to stop him, to make sure Owen stays where he belongs, and that they’re both safe.
I’ve been parked up opposite Ethan’s house for most of the afternoon.
Now and then, a curtain twitches or a neighbor wanders past walking a dog, but otherwise, the entire street seems frozen in place.
I’ve spent most of the day convincing myself that boring is good.
Boring means Sadie is safe. Boring means Ethan isn’t doing anything suspicious.
Boring means we can finally put this nightmare behind us.
Unfortunately, the moment Dani’s name appears on my screen, every comforting explanation evaporates. I accept the call.
“Is Sadie with you?” Dani asks, voice strangled.
Ice floods my veins. Sadie’s best friend is never serious, never afraid, but she sounds shit scared right now and that instantly makes my pulse spike.
“No. None of us has seen or heard from Sadie since she moved in with you five days ago,” I add, anticipating her next question.
“Shit,” she hisses. “I’m in the office today for a meeting, Sadie said she’d be fine and that she wouldn’t leave the house until it was time to pick Owen up from school.
She said she’d come right back. I just got a call from the school asking if I could come pick Owen up since no one showed up and they couldn’t reach Sadie.
I tried calling too, but her phone’s switched off.
I called my neighbor, and she said she saw Sadie leave on foot an hour ago. ”
I’m pissed that Dani didn’t call one of us when she knew she’d be out of the house today, leaving Sadie alone. If we’d known, there’s no way we’d have stayed away. “She didn’t take her car?”
“No… It’s still in the driveway.”
“Fuck.” That can’t be good. I’ve no idea why Sadie would have thought it was a good idea to walk there. “Have you gone home? Checked she’s definitely gone, or if there’s something wrong with her car?”
“Not yet, I need to get Owen.”
“Alright, one of the guys will go check it out.”
“Thanks, Dash, let me know if you find her, yeah?”
“Likewise.”
I’ve been sitting watching Ethan’s house all day, long enough for the afternoon sun to crawl slowly across the street and bake the black leather seat beneath me.
Long enough to watch neighbors come and go, delivery drivers arrive and leave, and a pair of kids cycle up and down the pavement three separate times.
My back aches. My neck aches. My patience disappeared hours ago.
Through it all, Ethan hasn’t gone anywhere near Sadie.
He’s worked from home all day, he’s collected deliveries, he’s even walked outside at one point to argue with somebody on the phone, but he hasn’t gone anywhere near Sadie. It isn’t him. We were wrong.
For days, we’ve convinced ourselves that following Ethan was productive.
Every hour spent watching him felt like an hour spent getting closer to an answer.
Now all I can think about is the time we’ve wasted.
The time we should have spent watching Sadie.
Time that we could have spent keeping her safe.
“What if this fucking psycho stalker has taken her?” Dani chokes out, voicing the fear I’d had since the moment I saw Dani’s name on my screen.
“We’ll find her. Get Owen, take him to the clubhouse. Don’t stop for anyone. Hurry.”
I hang up, cutting off Dani’s grateful yet panicked confirmation.
I reach for my helmet, hesitate, then place it back on the handlebars and climb off my bike.
Striding up to the house, I quickly ring Ethan’s doorbell before I can consider whether I’m making a monumental mistake.
Every instinct is screaming at me to get back on the bike.
To ride out and scour every inch of the earth in search of her.
Standing still feels impossible. But charging blindly around town won’t help Sadie.
Information might. A lead might. Right now, Ethan is the only lead I’ve got.
Ethan isn’t the one who answers. It’s his new woman, the one he dumped Sadie for, Brielle. She’s pretty in an unremarkable way, and young. Maybe early twenties. I guess Ethan is the type of man who’ll spend his entire life trading in women for a younger model.
Standing in front of Brielle now, she looks nothing like the homewrecker I imagined. She looks nervous, and a little uncertain. Whatever else she might be, she doesn’t look like somebody capable of orchestrating or covering up for the kind of cruelty Sadie has been dealing with.
She smiles at me to start with, the kind of approving smile I’m used to getting from women. But then she spots the bike behind me, the cut on my jacket, and fear flashes in her eyes. She immediately tries to slam the door shut. The door meets my foot.
“I’ll call the police.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am, really I am.” The words do nothing to calm her. Even my charming smile doesn’t work. I opt for blunt honesty. “Sadie’s missing.”
That stops her short. “What?”
The transformation is immediate. The fear doesn’t disappear completely, but something else pushes past it—shock, confusion, and concern. Whatever Brielle thinks of me, whatever she thinks of the club, she clearly understands enough about Sadie to know that something bad has happened.
I quickly explain everything, telling her about the stalker, the notes, and how Sadie has now failed to pick Owen up from school.
“She would never miss a school pickup. She’s never even late. I was late once, and she took me off the approved list of people who can collect him from school.” Brielle says this without resentment. If anything, she sounds respectful.
The comment catches me off guard. Not because of what she says, but because of how she says it.
I suddenly find myself wondering how many stories Ethan has told her over the years.
How many conversations has she sat through listening to him talk about Sadie without realizing what he was doing?
How many times has she compared herself to Sadie and felt like she’ll never live up to her?
“I know, which is why I need to speak to Ethan.”
“Ethan’s been working from home all day. We keep telling you, he isn’t behind this.”
I nod. “I know.” The admission tastes unpleasant. Five days ago, I would have argued. Three days ago, I would have argued. Hell, this morning I would have argued. Now all I can think about is how much time we’ve wasted watching the wrong man while somebody else has been watching Sadie.
Her eyes narrow a little, her judgment clear.
“We were wrong to suspect him. I’m sorry. But he might be able to offer some insight into who is.”
She bites her lip. “He’ll be real mad if I disturb him, he’s on an important work call.”
I bite back my frustration. The mother of his child is missing.
Not late, not running errands, missing, and Brielle apparently thinks that Ethan would be more worried about a work call.
Maybe that’s unfair. Maybe he’s genuinely busy.
Right now, I don’t particularly care. Surely the mother of his child going missing is more important than a work call.
“Maybe I can help?” Brielle offers, her blue eyes wide. “Sadie and I weren’t close or anything, but I know a lot about her from Ethan.”
At this point, I’m willing to try anything. “Okay, thanks. Can I come in?”
Brielle looks nervous and tries to hide it. I guess I do look a bit threatening. “It’s a nice day, why don’t we sit on the porch? I’ll fetch us some iced tea,” she says.
I can’t blame her for being afraid to let me in, especially not after Shadow and Trigger’s actions the other night.
I want to shake her and tell her that we don’t have time for fucking iced tea, but I don’t.
Whatever’s happened I can’t take it out on this woman.
I just hope she might have some ideas about who this could be.
“That sounds good, thank you.”
The words feel absurd given the circumstances.
Somewhere out there, Sadie is missing, and I’m sitting on a porch discussing iced tea.
Every instinct I possess is screaming at me to get back on my bike and start searching myself.
The only thing stopping me is the knowledge that charging blindly around the city won’t help anyone.
Information might—a lead might. Right now, Brielle is the closest thing I have to either.
She heads inside, leaving me on the porch.
The porch swing creaks gently in the afternoon breeze. Somewhere nearby, a sprinkler ticks rhythmically across a lawn. A dog barks in the distance. The neighborhood’s so aggressively normal that it feels surreal.
While Brielle is in the house, I quickly call and update the others.
My mask slips the second Chief answers. I don’t bother pretending I’m calm.
I don’t bother pretending this isn’t terrifying.
I can feel genuine panic threatening to take hold because every minute that passes without hearing from her makes the possibilities harder to ignore.
Chief agrees with my plan and orders Trigger to go to Sadie’s house, Shadow to her gym, and he’ll check anywhere else Sadie might have gone.
It’s a necessary but frustrating box to tick.
Owen is her world, she’s made that perfectly clear.
She would crawl through broken glass before she willingly let him down.
If she didn’t show up for him, that means something bad has happened.
We agree there’s no use calling the cops yet. They won’t help this early, especially with no evidence that she’s been taken. Chief confirms that he’s got the other members searching for Sadie and checking all of the hospitals in case she got into an accident.
“We’ll find her.”
The words feel like a mantra. If we say them enough, perhaps they’ll come true, because the alternative is unthinkable.
The alternative is to accept that somebody got close enough to take her without any of us noticing, and that Sadie is gone forever.
The alternative is to accept that we failed.
Right now, that is a possibility I refuse to entertain.
I only hope that we’re not too late.